Timepiece



w. BIEDENFELD 1,989,584

TIMEPIECE Filed March 125, 1953 INVENTOR HIS ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 29, 1935 'iUNIT-ED "STAT-E35.

PATENT OFFICE TIMEPIECE William- Biedenfeld, *Peru, Ill. .Aimfiwimmrenis, 1933, Serial No. 660,579

--4-Glaims. (c1. 58'126) .This invention relates to certain novel improvements in timepieces.

In. clocksand watches. it has heretofore been customary to arrange the time indicating indicia around a circle or 360 of arc and to arrange the hour hand as a radius of said circle adapted to complete one revolution around the circle in twelve hours. The customary practice has also been to arrange the minute hand as a radius of said circle adapted to complete one revolution therearound each hour.

An object of the present invention is to provide in a timepiece a new arrangement of timeindicating indicia, and hour and minute hands whereby the hour and minute indicia are arranged around of are or half of a circle and the hour and minute hands are arranged as diameters of said circle; the hour hand making one revolution in twenty-four hours and the minute hand one revolution each two hour period.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, showing the preferred form of construction and in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a timepiece embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same on line 22 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view on line 33 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional detail view on line 4-4 in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a modification of the invention; and

Fig. 6 is a front elevational view, partly in section, of another modification of the invention.

In the drawing the casing of a timepiece in the form of a clock is generally indicated at 10 and has arranged thereon an hour and minute dial 11 and a motor mechanism, generally indicated at 12. This motor mechanism is conventional except that the ratio of the gears therein is such that the hour hand 13 makes one revolution or 360 of arc in twenty-four hours and the minute hand 14 makes one revolution or 360 of arc in two hours. The hour and minute hands 13 and 14 are arranged as diameters of a circle about a semi-circle of which the hours and minutes on the dial 11 are arranged, three different modifications of the dial 11 being shown, namely, one in Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, one in Fig. 5, and another in Fig. 6.

It will be noted that-eachhalf of the hour hand 13 traverses the semi-circular marked dial 11 and indicates the time during'twelve hours of day and'then passes into and traverses the lower and unmarked semi-circle and becomes ineffective to indicate time of day for twelve hours. Similarly, one half of the minute hand 14 traverses the dial 11 during one hour and then traverses the lower and unmarked half of the dial during the next hour; the time being read in the case of both hands by noting the position of the upper half of each hand relative to the dial 11. Thus, in the form shown in Fig. 3, the end portion 13a of the hour hand 13 and the end portion 14a of the minute hand 14 will indicate the time until these end portions pass the six oclock mark (16) whereupon the time is read by noting the positions of the end portions 13b and 14b communicating with the six oclock mark (17) and the thirty minute mark (18).

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A timepiece comprising a housing having a sight opening in the nature of an are extending through substantially 180, an hour dial and a minute dial arranged in operative relation with said sight opening and mounted within said housing, said dials being arranged in spaced apart relation in a common plane, an hour hand having two reaches of equal length arranged in axial alignment and each provided with an indicating finger extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the hour dial, and a minute hand having two reaches of equal length and arranged in axial alignment, each reach being provided with an indicating pointer extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the minute dial, each dial extending through an arc of substantially 180.

2. A timepiece comprising a housing having a sight opening in the nature of an are extending through substantially 180", an hour dial and a minute dial arranged in operative relation with said sight opening and mounted within said housing, said dials being arranged in spaced apart relation in a common plane, an hour hand having two reaches of equal length arranged in axial alignment and each provided with an indicating finger extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the hour dial, and a minute hand having two reaches of equal length and arranged in axial alignment, each reach being provided with an indicating pointer extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the minute dial, each dial extending through an arc of substantially 180, each indicating pointer associated with each hand passing over its respective dial once during each revolution of the hand.

3. In a clock, a front face having a sight opening in the nature of a narrow are extending through slightly more than 180", an hour dial and a minute dial arranged in spaced relation in a common plane, a minute hand having two reaches of equal length, each reach being provided with an indicating pointer extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the minute dial in a radial direction from the axis of rotation of the hand, and an hour hand having two reaches of equal length each provided with an indicating pointer extending through the space between said dials and a short distance over the hour dial in a radial direction from the axis of rotation of the hour hand.

4. In a clock, a dial having a single set of time indicating indicia arranged as an arc through substantially 180, one side of said indicia representing hours and the other side minutes, an hour hand having two reaches of equal length and each provided with an indicating pointer arranged in operative relation with the hour side of said indicia, and a minute hand having two reaches each provided with an indicating pointer arranged in operative relation with the minute side of said indicia, the two sides of said indicia being closely grouped and the pointers of the minute hand moving in a path closely related to the path of the pointers associated with the hour hand.

WILLIAM BIEDENFELD. 

